Luddite free zone
My recent post on robot camel jockeys has received notice from some big fish blogs like Marginal Revolution and Tigerhawk. These sorts of stories attract attention because we humans enjoy diversions.
Today I met with some folks concerned about the employment of nationals in the non-governmental sector. As a kind of water cooler topic for diversion we chatted about the robot camel jockeys. Arguably, there is a connection here. Every robot camel jockey is going to need a human operating it by remote control. I imagine that the human operator will use skills like those acquired from playing video games. (I imagine that the operator will follow the race on a video screen.) It's an IT job.
At the same time, the human operator will need to know his or her camel. The operator's grandfather may have worked with camels for his livelihood. In a real way, the cultural heritage of camel racing with Emiratis at the helm is preserved.
The operators will not just work races. To become proficient they will need to work routinely on their operating skills and with their camels. These are full time jobs.
Finally, some have said the number of underage camel jockeys are or were in the thousands. The number of jobs for remote control operators could be large.
My recent post on robot camel jockeys has received notice from some big fish blogs like Marginal Revolution and Tigerhawk. These sorts of stories attract attention because we humans enjoy diversions.
Today I met with some folks concerned about the employment of nationals in the non-governmental sector. As a kind of water cooler topic for diversion we chatted about the robot camel jockeys. Arguably, there is a connection here. Every robot camel jockey is going to need a human operating it by remote control. I imagine that the human operator will use skills like those acquired from playing video games. (I imagine that the operator will follow the race on a video screen.) It's an IT job.
At the same time, the human operator will need to know his or her camel. The operator's grandfather may have worked with camels for his livelihood. In a real way, the cultural heritage of camel racing with Emiratis at the helm is preserved.
The operators will not just work races. To become proficient they will need to work routinely on their operating skills and with their camels. These are full time jobs.
Finally, some have said the number of underage camel jockeys are or were in the thousands. The number of jobs for remote control operators could be large.
Labels: camel jockeys
posted by John B. Chilton at 4/12/2005 09:11:00 PM
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